winick is joining us from atlantic beach this morning. good morning, t.j. >> reporter: rob and mike, good morning to you both. even with a category 2 hurricane you're still talking about winds up to 110 miles per hour and we're certainly getting some of the outer bands of that right now. the real concern right here in north carolina at this point is storm surge. what, with the waves behind me and the flooding that can cause. despite mandatory evacuations in three coastal counties down here, officials can't force people out of their homes. so many have chosen to ride this one out. a state of emergency has been declared at this point in four states -- north carolina, virginia, maryland, and massachusetts. and certainly that should help getting those necessary resources to where they need to go as soon as the storm blows out to sea. now right now the storm is on a path to cape cod, massachusetts, with 500,000 simple residents. even though a hurricane hitting the northeast is a once in a generation event, emergency officials up there promise